14 Innovative NJ Companies Honored at R&D Council’s Edison Patent Awards

Yesterday evening, in a virtual setting, hundreds of representatives from the largest research organizations in the world, including some of New Jersey’s best academic minds, gathered for the 41st annual Thomas Edison Patent Awards hosted by the Research & Development Council of New Jersey.

Fourteen companies and institutions of higher education representing nearly 60 researchers received the prestigious award. Additionally, three researchers were honored with special individual recognitions.

Noting the troubling circumstances that everyone is currently living in, R&D Council President Anthony Cicatiello opened the event by saying that the world is in the midst of “a raging pandemic,” but “just as research has gathered everyone to this event, research will also give us hope to end the pandemic.

“Because of scientific research, those battling COVID-19 have received critical therapeutic treatments. Meanwhile, research is currently underway to develop a vaccine for this virus, putting an end to this health crisis,” Cicatiello said.

The theme for this year’s ceremony was “Transforming Hope into Action.” It was chosen because “research delivers hope and is needed now more than ever,” Cicatiello said

Kevin Campos, R&D Council chair and associate vice president, process research & development at Merck & Co., Inc., added that research and innovation rests on hope and thoughtful, intellectual and strategic work. … This is the action. “The powerful combination of hope and action plays an important role in the innovation ecosystem,” he said.

The three special individuals honored last night included:

Chairman’s Award recipient Dr. Roger Perlmutter, president of Merck Research Laboratories, was recognized for guiding the research of one of this world’s foremost pharmaceutical companies. In particular, he was noted for his leadership in directing the Merck team on the oncology product Keytruda®, which is having a significant impact in cancer care throughout the world.

The Science and Technology Medal was given posthumously to Dr. Joachim Messing, former director of the Waksman Institute of Microbiology and the Waksman Chair of Molecular Genetics at Rutgers University. Dr. Messing made seminal contributions to the development of genomics and biotechnology. While still a research fellow, he began work on what would become “shotgun DNA sequencing,” a pioneering cloning technology that transformed genomics and was quickly adopted across the life science research community.

The Educator of the Year Award was given to Dr. Dawood Farahi, who recently retired from his role as president of Kean University. During his 17-year tenure as president, Dr. Farahi transformed the university, both physically through his expansion of facilities and dormitories, and academically through his emphasis on establishing curricula related to STEM majors. Dr. Farahi also partnered with the Ministry of Education of China to launch Wenzhou-Kean University, opening a new world of learning for students at Kean who could study abroad, and for students from China who were able to spend semesters at Kean.

The ceremony program can be viewed here.

Below is a snapshot of the 14 patent winners. They were selected from nominations that were reviewed by a team of R&D Council researchers who evaluated patents for the significance of the problem, utility/socio-economic value, novelty and commercial impact.

2020 Edison Patent Award Winners

American Standard, part of LIXIL

Consumer: James McHale, Christophe Bucher, David Grover: Primed Siphonic Flush Toilet. U.S. Patent 10,145,097 Piscataway, NJ

Avaya Inc.

Communications Technology: Heinz Teutsch, Ph.D., John Cornelius: Lynch System and Method for Improving Speech Intelligibility of Voice Calls Using Common Speech Codecs. U.S. Patent 8,645,142 Morristown, NJ

BASF Corporation

Environmental: Laif R. Alden, Mark T. Buelow, Gerard D. Lapadula, Pascaline H. Tran, Tiep Pham, Howard Furbeck, Francis S. Romanski: Base Metal Catalyst and Method of Using Same. U.S. Patent 20140255284 Iselin, NJ

Colgate-Palmolive Company

Adaptive Technology: Iraklis Pappas, Bartosz Luczynski, Donghui Wu, Dong Hyun Kim: Systems and Methods for Evaluating Compositions. U.S. Patent 10,515,715 Piscataway, NJ

Ethicon, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson Company

Medical Device: Benjamin D. Fitz, Dwayne Looney, Thomas Lee Craven, Clifford Dey, Atul Garg: Resorbable Laparoscopically Deployable Hemostat. U.S. Patent 10,111,782 Somerville, NJ

ExxonMobil Research & Engineering Company

Industrial Process: Rohit Vijay, Ajit Bhaskar Dandekar, Michel Daage, Christopher G. Oliveri, Christine Nicole Elia, Darryl Donald Lacy, Scott J. Weigel, Bradley R. Fingland: Hydrocracking of Gas Oils with Increased Distillate Yield. U.S. Patent 9,309,472 Annandale, NJ

Merck & Co., Inc.

Pharmaceutical: Manoj K. Sharma, Chakravarthy Nachu Narasimhan, Kevin James Gergich, Soonmo Peter Kang: Stable Formulations of Antibodies to Human Programmed Death Receptor PD-1 and Related Treatments. U.S. Patent 9,220,776 Rahway, NJ

New Jersey Institute of Technology

Sustainability: Chao Zhu, Zhiming Ji MengChu Zhou, Guangyu Gu, Bo Zhang: Vacuum Distillation and Desalination. U.S. Patent 10,661,194 Newark, NJ

Nokia Bell Labs

Telecommunications: Suresh P. Nair, Semyon B. Mizikovsky: Security Key Generation for Simultaneous Multiple Cell Connections for Mobile Device. U.S. Patent 9,338,136 Murray Hill, NJ

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

Emerging Technology: Gary A. Pajer, Michael A. Paluszek, Yosef S. Razin: Method and Apparatus to Produce High Specific Impulse and Moderate Thrust from a Fusion-Powered Rocket Engine. U.S. Patent 9,822,769 Princeton, NJ

Princeton University

Energy: Yueh-Lin Loo, Nicholas C. Davy, Melda Sezen Edmonds: Single-Junction Organic Photovoltaic Devices Having High Open-Circuit Voltages and Applications Thereof. U.S. Patent 10,476,018 Princeton, NJ

Rowan University

Medical Health Diagnostic: Robert G. Nagele, Ph.D.: Diagnostic Biomarker Profiles for the Detection and Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease. U.S. Patent 10,132,817 Glassboro, NJ

Siemens Corporate Technology

Information Technology: Juan L. Aparicio Ojea, Justinian Rosca, Lingyun Wang: Automatic Compression Algorithm Selection and Parameter. U.S. Patent 10,303,148, Princeton, NJ

Stevens Institute of Technology

Homeland Security: Hady Salloum, Alexander Sedunov, Nikolay Sedunov, Alexander Sutin: Passive Acoustic Detection, Tracking and Classification System and Method. U.S. Patent 9,651,649 Hoboken, NJ

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